Helpful Articles
Transforming a police agency one record at a time
Edward Claughton, President PRI Management Group November 2017 Collaborative reform. Consent decrees. The need for these is often based on issues that run deep within and throughout the agency, not on isolated problems that are one dimensional. They are matters which...
Applying for NCS-X Grants
Edward Claughton, President PRI Management Group February 2017 Print .PDF In the past year or so, PRI has received several calls from agencies seeking grants related to converting to NIBRS through the NCS-X initiative. Accordingly, we are sharing the guidance we...
Got an RMS that isn’t used as it should be?
Edward Claughton, President PRI Management Group February 2017 Print .PDF Investment in a records management system can range from as low as $35,000 for a very small agency up to millions for a large one. So with this expenditure, why do so many agencies not use the...
Law Enforcement is Failing at Crime Reporting
Edward Claughton, President PRI Management Group November 2016 At the center of the law enforcement profession is the proper reporting of crime. Doctors report medical data, schools report student data and police report crime data. Law enforcement is failing miserably...
On quality control of records: agencies still failing
Edward Claughton, President PRI Management Group August 2016 Case-in-point: CalGang Database Police agencies which refuse to recognize that quality control of police reports should include Records personnel correcting errors are begging for problems. Quality control...
On report writing: who is “this officer…”?
PRI Management Group August 2016 It's 2016 and we're still talking about police reports written in the 3rd person. After reading literally thousands upon thousands of police reports in our work as police records consultants and auditors, we've seen our fair share of...
There’s No Such Thing As Automated Redaction
Edward Claughton, President PRI Management Group A couple of body-worn camera companies (BWC) are promoting "automated redaction" as a key feature of their product. Let me be very clear: there is no such thing! While the software may be able to track a face or an...
Why Quality Control is So Important in Police Records Operations
Print .PDF Edward Claughton President, PRI Management Group July 2015 “No Records Clerk is going to tell me how to write a report!” That’s what one sergeant recently said to me during a records management assessment I was conducting for the agency. Resisting the...
Open records law vs. right to privacy: what’s more important?
Edward Claughton PRI Management Group Openness, transparency, democracy; all good things obviously- the foundation upon which open records law is built and purposed. Some states do it better than others. Some states laws focus on openness, some focus on privacy....
Making Sure Your CAD/RMS Project Goes Right
Edward Claughton Print .pdf Last week a police department in Pennsylvania made the news because its 1.2 million dollar RMS and field reporting project isn't going well. The system is not doing what it was promised to do and what should have been a 1 year project has...
Leadership in law enforcement (and technology) still an issue
Ed Claughton August 2013 In a recent edition of The Records Room I mentioned an article about a failed police technology project in Pennsylvania in which the Chief displayed utter disregard for the concerns of his police officers. Granted, maybe there's more to the...
Is Records Management Taken Seriously At Your Agency?
Edward Claughton July 2012 Print .pdf Is your police records unit undervalued? Are the employees who work there appreciated? Is the records management function one that is taken seriously? If not, then it's time to take an inventory of this important area of your...
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